One of my worst misdeeds is to read the readers’
comments over what I write alone, and not to publish them, especially if such
comments were complementing and flattering… as to the comments disagreeing and
criticizing, I do publish them… not because I am a devout democratic person, rather
because I am overwhelmed with appreciating and welcoming any debate… as I
believe such debate gives writing and dialogue a spicy flavor like that found
in our traditional dishes; Koshari, fried pepper and eggplants and red pepper
added to cottage cheese mixed with tomatoes… such meals that real Egyptians
adore and are addicted to!
Today, I let go of this misdeed –for a while– and
publish some of the readers’ comments over last week’s article titled “Correction
needed”. In that article, I wrote about the lack of historical culture, and
misunderstanding and reporting false information. I gave an example for this
with what Mr. Salah Montaser wrote in his article, in addition to another
article written by Mrs. Wafaa Mahmoud.
I start by Dr. Muhammed Farrag Abun-Nour’s comment
saying: “It is a very important article that sheds light on a major issue the
Egyptian journalism suffers from; that is the extreme lack of historical
culture, if not total ignorance regarding such matter.. I believe such thing is
a live representation for a bigger and more wide-spreading serious issue; that
is the indifference to know the truth in the first place… or even a deliberate
attempt to distort it or utterly cold-bloodedly kill her in many times to score
a point in favor of a political or personal interest… what is really painful is
that such thing is sometimes committed by some writers, the thing that led to
distorting our people’s collective awareness of their history, which is a big
crime.
For example, as to Mr. Salah Montaser himself, his
misunderstanding of the details of the Urabi revolt, looks like it is due only
to his lack of knowledge… however, such thing is nothing compared to his big
mistakes regarding his writings over July, 1952’s revolution along with its
great achievements like industrialization and building the High Dam, or Gamal Abdel-Nasser’s
character and his way of ruling, which we do not claim it was void of mistakes,
however making up mistakes and grave deeds and smearing the man with such thing
while flouting the truth and history facts, is not acceptable.
Also, such thing as flouting the truth we can see in
Mr. Montaser in addition to others’ writings about the merits of the royal era
and Sadat’s era which he describes as golden eras!
One of the grave examples for such mis-dealing with
the truth is their saying that the Egyptian economy in the royal era was
stronger than in the time of the July, 1952 revolution… and that Great Britain
was indebted to Egypt with 400 million £, ignoring that those debts were for
using the country’s ports, roads, water, electricity… etc. by the Allied
powers’ armies during the time of World War II –the thing which we could not
say No to– and not due to any developed economic activities.
Another example for their outrageous deed is their
saying that agricultural reform, applied by July, 1952 revolution, damaged the
country’s agricultural economy, as it led to dismantling the agricultural
possession, although the biggest owners of agricultural land used to cultivate
the land using the very under-developed means. Also, methods of modern
capitalist agriculture were applied only in very limited number of lands
possessed by the biggest owners.
Our conversation over agricultural land takes us to
your reply to what Mrs. Wafaa Mahmoud wrote over the great Menou’s project… it
also pays attention to the necessity to shed light on a massive popular scale
over relations of agricultural land possession and ownership in Egypt in the
nineteenth century… starting from Muhammed Ali’s procedures, to Said Pasha
By-law, to Khedive Ismail’s Exchange By-law[1]
which he issued in 1876…along with its impact over relations of lands’
possession, selling, buying… etc. All these issues are hidden under the cloak
of ignorance leading to a very disturbed interpretation for the history of
agricultural activity in Egypt and our nation’s history in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries in general.
Despite all that, we can see many providing false
information about such serious matters in an outrageous flouting of the truth
and facts of history.
Your very important article that discussed a crucial
issue also sheds light on the responsibility of enlightened patriot cultured
figures like you and big historian Dr. Ali Barakat to clarify the facts
regarding those big historical issues and unveiling such cloak of almost utter ignorance
off them… I do believe you can do it… please, accept my kind regards”.
Now, we come to Mrs. Nehal Hassan al-Quesni; the
international expert, who wrote: “I’m afraid to say that superficiality and not
taking accuracy into account became the common trend over many levels, due to
the diversity of means of collecting information and not committing to being
precise in seeking information sources, in addition to the lack of scientific criteria
in validating the veracity of information”.
Finally, I would like to thank gentlemen Fawzi
Suliman, Suma al-Harthi, Muhammed Sayed Ahmed, Mustafa al-Gamal, Muhammed
Abdel-Fattah Muhammed, Akram al-Sa’dani, Suliman Shafiq, Nasr al-Qaffas and
Iman Embabi for adding their quick telegraphic comments, and for the rest of gentlemen
exceeding hundred who read and liked the article without commenting.
Translated into English by: Dalia Elnaggar
This article was published in
Al Ahram newspaper on May 9, 2019.
To see the original article,
go to:
#ahmed_ahmed_elgammal #history
#Egypt
[1] Exchange by-law: that
law stated that in case the agricultural land owners paid the taxes imposed on
their lands for 6 years in advance, they will be eligible to pay only half the
taxes imposed on their lands forever as an exchange.
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